In many types of buildings occupied and used by significant numbers of people, it is common practice to install handrails along the halls and corridors to assist people in traversing these areas. Such facilities are particularly useful and almost universally found in such structures as hospitals, convalescent homes and the like. In structures of the latter type, the passage ways are traversed not only by people, but also by wheeled equipment of various types. In these installations, it has become common to employ combined handrail and bumper assemblies, which are installed along the walls and provide a hand grip for the convalescent and infirm, and also a means for protecting the walls from being damaged by careless handling of wheeled vehicles. Combination handrail-bumper installations for this purpose are known and have been commercially available. Examples of such previously available unitary handrail-bumper systems of design are the BR-300 and BR-800 handrails marketed by Pawling Corporation, of Pawling, N.Y. These devices incorporate an elongated, extruded aluminum support or retainer over which is placed a semi-rigid plastic shell or cover. The cover is contoured so that the upper portion thereof forms a comfortable hand grip, while lower portions provide a contact cushion against bumping by vehicles, etc.
Recent architectural preferences have indicated a desire for handrail-bumper combinations to incorporate handrail elements which can be of different colors than other portions of the structure, or even of different materials. For example it may be desirable to have the handrail portion formed of a rigid vinyl shell, of the same or different color than the associated bumper portion below, or there may be a desire for the handrail portion to be formed of wood. Additionally, there is an architectural desire for accent strips, optionally of a different color, joining a handrail portion along the top with a bumper portion along the bottom. Particularly in institutional structures, such as hospitals, the use of such accent strips is desired to enable color coding of different areas of the structure.
Early attempts to provide for design flexibility in the choice of handrail materials and/or accent strips and the like have been only partially satisfactory, because the structures have tended to be relatively crude and angular. Such arrangements are not only visually unattractive, but are functionally disadvantageous. Flat, angular surfaces are difficult to keep clean. In addition, surfaces that present edges and corners can easily cause tears and abrasions in the skin of elderly patients, who are the most likely group of individuals to be utilizing the handrails for support.
In accordance with the present invention, a novel and improved handrail-bumper combination assembly is provided which readily accommodates the current architectural requirements of flexible design in terms of materials, colors, etc. yet which also provides a functionally superior structure with smooth, blending curved surfaces free of sharp corners and the like, which are both unsightly and likely to cause minor injuries to the fragile skin of elderly patients. The basic conceptual design of the invention is readily adaptable to handrails which are formed of wood or are provided with a rigid vinyl cover, in either case being provided with the facility to mount a highly visible, yet evenly contoured accent strip.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, novel and improved structural features are provided for installing returns and corners for the handrail-bumper combination. The arrangement of the invention provides for greater strength and improved visual appearance at corners and returns, as well as minimizing the component parts required to construct both inside and outside corners, for example.
For a more complete understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention and to the accompanying drawings.